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The city’s practice of shuffling troubled kids from a city-run foster-care center to Bellevue Hospital — where many are sedated — needs to be scrutinized, elected officials said Sunday.

“It’s a disturbing story, so we’re going to have to find out what’s going on,” said City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Queens), after reading about the questionable transfers from Manhattan’s Nicholas Scoppetta Children’s Center in The Post.

“In that world of the forgotten, nobody wants to step up, so the city has to step in,” he said. “Can the city handle it? That’s an open question.”

The hard-to-handle children at Scoppetta, which is overseen by the city Administration of Children’s Services, are often labeled “emotionally disturbed persons” and then transferred next door to Bellevue, where one insider said “they’re doping them up.”

ACS said they are medicated “only for medically necessary reasons.”

ACS has come under scrutiny for several serious lapses over the past two years.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who recently released an audit of the agency, vowed to continue to hold its feet to the fire.

“Whether it’s homeless children or those in our foster care system, the health and safety of young New Yorkers must be the first priority,” he said. “We will continue to hold ACS accountable for its treatment of those under its care.”